wildfire

American  

[wahyld-fahy^uhr] / ˈwaɪldˌfaɪər /

noun

• wildfires
  plural

1. any large fire in brush, forests, or open spaces that spreads rapidly and is hard to extinguish.

2. a highly flammable composition, such as Greek fire, difficult to extinguish when ignited, formerly used in warfare.

3. sheet lightning, unaccompanied by thunder.

4. the ignis fatuus or a similar light.

5. Plant Pathology. a disease of tobacco and soybeans, characterized by brown, necrotic spots, each surrounded by a yellow band, on the leaves and caused by the bacterium Pseudomonas tabaci.

6. Pathology Obsolete. erysipelas or some similar disease.

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wildfire British  

/ ˈwaɪldˌfaɪə /

noun

1. a highly flammable material, such as Greek fire, formerly used in warfare

2. 1. a raging and uncontrollable fire

   2. anything that is disseminated quickly (esp in the phrase spread like wildfire )

3. lightning without audible thunder

4. another name for will-o'-the-wisp

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wildfire Idioms  

1. see spread like wildfire.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• wildfires
  plural

Etymology

Origin of wildfire

First recorded before 1000; Middle English wildefire, Old English wildfȳr; equivalent to wild + fire

Explanation

A wildfire is an uncontrolled blaze, especially one that ignites rural areas with a lot of trees and dry brush. Factors like drought, unusually warm weather, and development can contribute to bigger wildfires. Wildfires are a natural part of many forest lifecycles, but human activity and climate change have made these conflagrations more frequent and dangerous. Unextinguished campfires, lightning strikes, and power lines can all ignite a fire that spreads and becomes a wildfire, given dry enough conditions. The biggest U.S. wildfire, which burned acres of the Santa Fe National Forest in New Mexico, devastated an area larger than New York City. In Old English, a wildfire was a wilde fyr.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wildfire wildfires

The day before the alert was sent earlier this month, 19 homes burned down in the west Midlands town of Stourbridge after a wildfire.

From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026

The bill would also create a state program to get payments more quickly to wildfire victims.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026

The National Fire Chiefs Council said the alert heightened people's awareness and public behaviour, while government insiders point out wildfire alerts are commonplace in many European countries.

From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026

The reflex is to blame greedy insurers and actuaries in Hartford, Conn., pricing wildfire risk in counties they couldn’t find on a map.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

They had just met, and here they were riding together through a wildfire as if they were heading off to see a movie.

From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz

Saturday, Newsom and lawmakers agreed on some measures aimed at reducing the costs of future utility-sparked wildfires.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026

Speaking against the backdrop of wildfires that his government linked to El Niño, he said the country has ample food.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026

The government's own webpage, external for emergency alerts says they are only sent for "life-threatening emergencies", listing wildfires, severe flooding and extreme storms.

From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026

Heat and drought have battered much of Europe this summer, fuelling a spike in heat-related mortality, wildfires, devastating many crops and dropping water levels in major rivers.

From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026

She knew as well as her dad did that giant sequoias were adapted to withstand wildfires.

From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz

Related Words

• blaze
• conflagration
• flare
• flash
• light
• spark